“Convergence” Catalogue
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Frances Ferdinands Convergence After decades of painting in a representational/surrealistic mode, I recently forged a new direction embarking on a series of “Abstracts”. I am finding new challenges in my approach to the canvas, letting the imagery unfold in an organic manner, and allowing the elements of chance and improvisation infuse the work. Currently these new works are developing in two connected but different paths. Much of the “Sari” and “Paisley” inspired paintings evoke my South Asian heritage in the vivid colors, textures, patterning, and motifs used throughout. These subjects are rooted in the cultural, social and religious fabric of the region, but over time have been appropriated and adapted by western culture. Their resultant hybrid nature allows me to intervene with my personal associations and configurations in the creation of works that I hope resonate on a visual and conceptual level. They are also symbolic of my own migration to the west, and my hybrid status as a Sri Lankan Canadian. The “Totems” with their vertical thrust focus more on strength with gesture, and reflect the influence of the grandeur displayed by the ancient pine and maple trees that surround me here at my new country home. These works demonstrate a more “painterly approach” to the subject. It includes a concentration on gesture, texture, form and color utilizing a variety of gels and pastes. All of the paintings are linked together through the application of materials, and the useConvergence of unorthodox tools such as tile scrapers, spools of thread, the imprinting of fabric, and bits of china which reflect my personal history. Within this I try to capture the spirit of these influences in creating a dance across a richly vibrant and nuanced surface. COVER: Sari #1 Frances Ferdinands, 2013: Reflections on Identity in Abstract Mode The show by Frances Ferdinands, Convergence, is an idiosyncratic look at identity which Some of the Paisley/ Sari works are smaller and deliberately so, but all are exuberant and invokes memories of the artist’s homeland in Sri Lanka as much as her sympathy and explosive so that in Bits for example, the forms seem to be emerging before our eyes in a love for her life in Canada. bath of energy. The effect recalls the works of the French master Odilon Redon, emergent in places with hits of colour, in a richly handled broth of areas, some of which are paint- The exhibition begins and ends with a brand-new way of painting for Ferdinands, a distinctly encrusted and others where the paint is scraped for a scraffito impression. untraditional way of abstracting in nervy works that grapple with images drawn from her South Asian past and Canada, though never simultaneously in the same work. Ferdinands studied Visual Art at York University in Toronto, graduating in 1974, and trained with teachers such as Graham Coughtry and Gordon Rayner. Abstraction was The paintings are concise yet deep, themed in two sections that play fast and loose with the order of the day, the more richly and expressively painted the better. We are to be memory and vision, creating novel ways of dealing with colour and composition but reminded that Ferdinands’s only abstract work was done at that time, although she has never falling back on one way of working or another. always loved what the brush can do. However, these works, her first abstractions from Both series zero on Abstract Expressionism but seem on the verge of something else, be then till now, are dense and textured and involve areas in which she uses granular gels it narrative or “Pattern and Decoration.” Most riveting is Ferdinands’s Totem #1, a vividly and pastes. They are pictures which only tell a little about where they’re coming from but hued gestural abstraction with rich oranges, purples and blues from 2011. The first in her tell a lot about where the artist is going. These are denizens of a special nation, Canada, Canadian series, it reminds you that Ferdinands was an accomplished colourist in the in which all mixtures are possible and accepted. representational paintings she painted earlier in her career. Totem #1, detail Perhaps some of them should be called “Odes” since Ferdinands is besides being a Voyager #1, detail IMAGE 1 Another surprise comes with Burst, another Totem painting, all about energy and colour. painter, a talented pianist with her A.R.C.T. degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music IMAGE 7 The same energy and exuberant colour appear in her Paisley and Sari series though here in Toronto (1972). Music is a large part of her life and Ferdinands in her paintings offers what’s lurking beneath the surface of her imagery is her knowledge and her memory of the viewer a lyrical quality in many of the works so that she seems to be pursuing sounds South Asia. To acknowledge that world, she likes to refer to the history of paisley cloth, – or so it seems – in paint. using shapes drawn from fabrics and combining them in different colour schemes. It’s tempting to think that in Convergence the artist went beyond memories and issues, Paisley, it seems to Ferdinands, has a story not unlike that of her life. Originally from Persia, and left her conceptually-based work behind to face new challenges apparently at random, the patterns traveled to India before arriving in Scotland. The story is one of migration of but that raises, in another way, the idea of her being an outsider to abstraction in her own forms which to her refers to the migration of peoples and to herself. In this series we find special way. These paintings are narratives even if abstract; some of them have a political glimpses of the artist’s life prior to Canada through a concatenation of symbols in a hidden side and confirm what we know or suspect about Ferdinands: that she is an original in narrative. “P & O” occurs in the Voyager #1 work -- it was one of the ships she took with her everything she does. parents to come to Canada. Patterns occur, dots, squiggles, stripes, cross-hatches, loose By approaching the mode of abstraction ambitiously Frances Ferdinands orchestrates a brush strokes, bits of imprints of material, imprints of spools of thread (she and her mother known language into a dizzying experience that comes close to being both gorgeous and loved to sew). “Everything is bits and pieces,” says Ferdinands, “when you travel from East a way of fitting together incongruous fragments of life. Her way of working is not unlike to West, and in your heart and memory you go back again.” the South Asian-Canadian experience, which, like much like the rest of the world, is not In the Paisley/Sari series, the images are present but subtly so, they often seem merely overwhelmed by input, but able to process what has occurred to it. We see in her work implied. In the Totem works, the images are sometimes more explicit, so large vertical the results transformed into contemplatable form. Burst, detail forms soar upwards like trees – or Totems. Bits, detail IMAGE 6 Joan Murray, August 2013 IMAGE 4 1. Totem #1 2. Totem #2 3. Paisley #2 4. Bits 5. Flyover 6. Burst 7. Voyager #1 8 Voyager #2 9. Paisley to Plaid Education: 2003 Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, British Columbia “Adrift” 2007 Lennox Contemporary, Toronto, Ontario 1992 Art Contemporain Du Canada, Galerie Ader Tajan, “Double Date” (Tableau Vivant Performance) Paris, France B. ED. (1977) University Of Toronto (Visual Art & Drama) 2001 Macdonnell Gallery, Toronto, Ontario “Adrift” 2000 Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, Ontario “Adrift” 2006 Womanmade Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (U.S.A.) 1992 Beyond Time & Circumstance, Lynnwood Arts Centre, HON. B.F.A. (1974) York University (Visual Art) “Anthropomorphism” Simcoe, Ont. A.R.C.T. (1972) Royal Conservatory Of Music, Toronto (Piano) 2000 Ka ‘Ikena Gallery, Kapi’olani College, Honolulu, Hi. (U.S.A.) “Palm Breeze” 2006 A.K.A. Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 1990 Frances Ferdinands 1983 – 1999, Gallery Lambton, “Double Date” (Tableau Vivant Performance) Sarnia, Ontario Selected Grants & Awards: 1997 Gallery 13, Rocky Neck Art Colony, Gloucester, Mass. 1991 Kenneith Gallery, Sarnia, Ontario 2005 Galeria Carrion Vivar, Bogota, Columbia “Nord – Sud” 1985 Old Wars By Young Artists, Robert Mclaughlin Gallery, Canada Council Travel Grant: 1999 1990 Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, Ontario 2005 Niagara Gallery, Toronto “Artists For Africa” Oshawa, Ontario Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance: 2013, 2008, 2007, “Frances Ferdinands 1983-1989” 2005 Latcham Gallery, Stouffville, Ontario “Go Figure” 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2000, 1999, 1995, 1989, 1987, 1986 1988 Albert White Gallery, Toronto, Ontario “Urban/ Nature” 2004 Womanmade Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (U.S.A.) Collections: Public / Corporate Ontario Arts Council Artist-In-The-School Grant: 1994, 1992, 1987 Galerie Arpege, Collingwood, Ontario “Fabrications” 1991, 1978 Advanced Photographics, Danvers, Massachusetts “Mysterious Travellers” 2001 Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, Queen’s Park, Toronto, Archives Of Ontario, Toronto Canada Council Project Grant: 1985 Ontario “The New Spirit Of Ontario” 1986 Albert White Gallery, Toronto, Ontario Archon Construction, Toronto Ontario Arts Council Project Grant: 1975 “Mysterious Travellers” 1997 Granite Shore Gallery, Rockport, Mass (U.S.A.) Canada Life Assurance, Toronto 1986 La Centrale (Formerly Powerhouse) Montreal, 1996 Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, Ontario Cadillac-Fairview Corp., Toronto Publications: Quebec “War” “Heritage Park Collection” Carrousel Holidays, Toronto 1985 Kozak Gallery, Toronto, Ontario “War” 1993 Passions Gallery Provincetown, Mass (U.S.A.) Featured Artist In “Acrylic Innovation” – Nancy Reyner, CHSLD Providence Notre-Dame De Lourdes, Montreal Northlight Books, 2010 1981 Merton Gallery, Toronto, Ontario “Solitary Women” 1993 McIntyre Gallery Regina, Saskatchewan Dresdner Bank Canada, Toronto Featured Artist In “Rethinking Acrylic” – Patti Brady, 1992 Galerie Ader Tajan, Paris France Franco-Nevada Mining, Toronto Northlight Books, 2008 Exhibitions: Two or Three Person “Art Contemporain Du Canada” C0-Editor Of – Coach House Press, 1973 1992 Lynnwood Arts Centre, Simcoe, Ontario Girig, Inc.